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Audie Bock
|birth_place =Glens Falls, New York |death_date = |death_place = |nationality =American |party =Green Democratic |spouse = |relations = |children = |residence = |alma_mater = |occupation =film scholar |profession = |religion = |signature = |website = |footnotes = }} Audie Elizabeth Bock (born October 15, 1946) is an American film scholar and politician who served in the California State Assembly from 1999 to 2000. She was elected in 1999 as a Green Party member during a special election for Oakland's 16th Assembly District, but switched to the Democratic Party after the 2000 election. Bock was elected to the Assembly in a 1999 special election after the mid-term resignation of U.S. Congressman Ron Dellums. Dellums' resignation caused a number of special elections that resulted in the ascension of State Senator Barbara Lee to Dellums' Congressional seat (she had been Dellums' former chief of staff), and the rise of State Assemblyman Don Perata to Lee's Senate seat. The special election was the last in a series of five special elections in twelve months known as the special election musical chairs. Bock won the 1999 election by a combination of circumstances. Although she received less than 9 percent of the vote in the February 2 special election for Perata's assembly seat, no candidate received 50 percent of the vote; this caused a runoff among the top-vote getter from each political party. Bock was helped by a lackluster campaign and a scandal involving her Democratic opponent, former Assemblyman and former Oakland mayor Elihu Harris, who had received nearly 49% of the vote in the first election. Harris sent targeted mailers to households in selected precincts, mostly African American, urging voters to vote for him and receive a fried chicken meal if they presented a voting stub at selected supermarkets. There was voter backlash because of the perception of vote buying (Section 18521 of the California Elections Code prohibits offering money or "other valuable consideration" in return for voting; the Harris campaign argued the fried chicken coupons were not covered) and that the tactic had a subtext of racism http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=13661. Working with Bock, in the capacity of Campaign Coordinator, John Maurice Cromwell helped build a coalition of Green Party members, disaffected Democrats and Republicans (who had no candidate in the race) to defeat Harris. Bock was outspent by Harris by a margin of better than 16 to 1 ($550,000 to $33,000).http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01EEDF1039F937A35757C0A96F958260 In August 1999, Bock left the Green Party and re-registered Decline-to-State so that she would not have to run in the March 2000 blanket primary and thus not have to compete directly against her Democratic opponent Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan until the November 2000 General Election, by when she presumably would have had more time to fundraise. During this same period however, her acceptance of $500 campaign contributions from Chevron and Tosco drew criticism from within the Green Party. Running as an independent, Bock lost the November 2000 election and afterwards re-registered as a Democrat. After September 11, 2001, Bock announced her run against Barbara Lee in the 2002 primary as a Democrat, arguing that Lee's vote against the war in Afghanistan was unpatriotic. She later withdrew from the race before the filing deadline. In 2003, Bock ran for Governor of California in the 2003 California recall. On a right-wing website, she urged Democrats to vote to recall Gray Davis. Bock received 3,358 votes. In 2008, Audie Bock ran for a two-year term on the board of the Hayward Area Recreation & Park District http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2008/08/08/the-return-of-audie-bock/. Bock received 22,845 votes (46%) finishing second behind interim incumbent Paul Hodges http://audiebock.org/. Non-political career Aside from her involvement in politics, Bock is a film scholar and has had small roles in various movies. In 1978, she published what was considered for several years to be one of the best resources on Japanese cinema, Japanese film directors (ISBN 0-87011-304-6). She also translated Akira Kurosawa's partial autobiography, Something Like An Autobiography (ISBN 0-394-71439-3), which was published in 1983 by Vintage International and the first book length study in English of Mikio Naruse, Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema (1985). She's a former college teacher, taught throughout Hayward as a K-12 and adult school substitute teacher. She helped secure funding for numerous park projects, including restoration of the shores of Oakland’s Lake Merritt. Holds the Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the University of San Francisco. Has directed and served on boards of theater, arts and cultural organizations. Bock also directs a scholarship for low-income youth to receive free horseback riding lessons. An avid horsewoman, she rides in Castro Valley and Hayward and show Western Pleasure. She is a single mother of one daughter. References External links *Audie Bock official website * *Bock biography *http://www.ridesfoundation.org Adie Bock's Horse riding foundation Category:1946 births Category:Cinema of Japan Category:California Democrats Category:California Greens Category:Japanologists Category:Living people Category:Members of the California State Assembly Category:People from Oakland, California Category:Politics of Oakland, California Category:Women state legislators in California